This was by far the best thing I saw at Yubari this year! If Ghost in the Shell ends up sucking, have no worries, your cyberpunk fix is here.

While the film's trailer hints of the violence and graphic sex, it does not prepare you for how ambitious and political the film is. It's almost impossible to digest everything with just one viewing. Let me just give you the basic premise:

The film is set in the future. A man is hired to test run a new virtual reality game, which is set in the past (our present day). It is said that the game is plagued by some kind of virus, but we don't know exactly what. The game, which seems even more realistic than the reality itself, features a stressed office worker who is secretly harbouring extreme right wing ideologies and apparent hatred towards women.

This one takes a lot of brainwork. What is the connection between the film's two storylines? What is the relationship between actual reality and manufactured reality, and which one is influencing which more?

The film looks very stylish throughout and sounds even better. The cast is entirely Japanese, as is most of the crew, including Yoshihiro Nishimura who contributed the blood effects. Director Cho Jinseok has Korean and Australian nationalities, and perhaps its due to the former that the film bites modern Japanese political atmosphere in the ass. He joked prime minister Abe should see the film, and dedicated the movie to Nagisa Oshima.

The film's English title is Colonel Panics, but in Japanese it's "Kernel Panic". Different meanings, although both make sense in the film's context.

Yes, it was Germany and I will probably hold out for that. Midori Impuls is handling the release there. They're a fairly new label but are already buying up a lot of the same films we're discussing here. For 2018 they have already announced as dual DVD/BD releases: